AUTISTIC children allowed to attend normal schools are not being given proper assistance, because teachers are not properly trained to handle them, parents said yesterday. 'Some staff at normal schools do not even know what exactly autism is, and what the symptoms are like,' said Lee Lau Chu-lai, chairman of the Parents' Association of Pre-school Handicapped Children. Mrs Lee said teachers who were not trained to handle autistic pupils could think them impolite because of their inability to communicate. Some pupils could be classed as delinquent, and behavioural problems could follow because of isolation by teachers, she said. 'More probation teachers and physiotherapists should be provided . . . to care for these children in order to let them rejoin society,' Mrs Lee said. 'Whatever special classes these schools might have, they could not cater for the needs of these children.' But an Education Department spokesman said remedial classes in schools could cope with autistic children's needs. 'We have social workers and teachers with special training on hand to help,' he said.
